Middlesex Sessions:
General Orders of the Court
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3rd May 1753 - 15th September 1757

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Image 196 of 22221st April 1757


Incorrigible Rogues of no force, for it seems doubtfull how incorrigible
Rogues can be convicted without such Records

4th.

The too liberal Distribution of the ten Shillings with which the Magistrates
are impowered to reward Persons apprehending Vagrants and the Arts made use
of by Officers in the conveying of Vagrants by obtaining Passage for them at one
third of the Expence allowed by Sessions by means of Carriers and other easy Methods
have proved so lucrative that a king of Trade has been made of it at the Expence
of the County, Your Committee by inspecting the Orders for paying the Reward of
Ten Shillings find upwards of Fifty pounds directed to be paid in the Compass
of about a Year by one Magistrate a Sum We believe greater than directed
in the like Cases by all the rest of the Magistrates of the County in the same
time and when the Sums paid for passing the Vagrants are added to the said
Fifty pounds it amounts to near a Twelfth part of the whole County Rate and near
a fourth of the whole Expence charged upon the County upon this Account And
your Committee think that no Magistrates Clerk ought to make any Deduction
upon pretence of having made out the Pass and Order out of the Ten Shillings
which is the Reward given by the Law to the Apprehender, but your Committee
find the Committee contrary has been done and that four Shillings has been
deducted by the Clerk of that Magistrate out of such Reward, which induces
your Committee to be of Opinion that this extraordinary Method of sharing
the Reward between the Constable and the Justices Clerk may have produced an
Imposition upon the Justice and been the Cause of this extraordinary Charge
upon the County. Nor can your Committee help observing that many of the Orders
for the paying the above Fifty pounds are made out in large Sums in one Order
and couched in Terms not expression of the Cause for which they were made
or given under Hand and Seat, nor does it appear that such Vagrants were
either whipped or committed to Bridewell or that any Duplicates of the Passes
or Examinations were returned to the Sessions as the Law directs.

5th.

Another Cause of this great Expence has arisen from a wrong Use made of
Vagrant Passes by the Officers in same Parishes who to save the Great Expence
of Settlement Passes or the Maintenance of casual Poor not belonging to them
and whose Settlements were at a great Distance have passed such Poor as Rogues
and Vagabonds although no Act of Vagrancy had been committed and more
especially the scotch and Irish Vagabonds

6th.

Your Committee are also of Opinion that the putting the Vagrant Act into
Execution in particular Parishes and Places (howsoever laudable the
Intention of the Magistrates may be) brings a large Expence upon the
County without producing the designed Effect to the publick for as the design
of putting the said Act in this manner into Execution relates only to one Species
of Vagabonds, namely Beggars, those of them who are more the objects of
Compassion than punishment feel the Lash of the Law, while the artificial
Objects of Distress, who have reduced Begging into a Trade, well know how




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